Nicole Foss: Our consistent theme here at the Automatic Earth since its inception has been that we are facing a very powerful deflationary depression, following on from the bursting of an epic financial bubble. What we have witnessed in our three decades of expansion and inflation is nothing short of a monetary supernova, and that period has been the just culmination of a much larger upward trend going back many decades at least. We have lived through a credit hyper-expansion

Time to tackle a topic that’s very hard to get right, and that will get me quite a few pairs of rolling eyes. I want to argue that societies need a social fabric, a social contract, and that without those they must and will fail, descend into chaos. Five months ago, I wrote the following about Europe: Europe, The Morally Bankrupt Union The European Union is busy accomplishing something truly extraordinary: it is fast becoming such a spectacular failure that

• The Great Reset – Act II (Russell Napier) • Treason Charges: What Lurks Behind The Bizarre Allegations (Varoufakis) • This Is A Recipe For A European Civil War (AEP) • The Defeat Of Europe (Yanis Varoufakis) • If Varoufakis Is Charged With Treason, Then Dijsselbloem Should Be As Well (ZH) • In Defence Of Yanis Varoufakis (El-Erian) • Yanis Varoufakis Is Being Pilloried For Doing What Had To Be Done (Legrain) • After Greece, Everyone Will Want A Plan

As the “Varoufakis Files” provide everyone interested in the Greek tragi-comedy with an additional million pages of intriguing fodder -we all really needed that added layer of murky conspiracy, re: the Watergate tapes-, a different question has been playing in my head. Again. That is: Why are economists discussing politics? Why are the now 6 month long Greece vs Troika discussions being conducted by the people who conduct them? All parties involved are apparently free to send to the table